I note there existed a modules="fbcon" line there.
When I tried simply adding a separate line with modules="radeon" leaving both lines intact, the only thing that seemed to change was that when the startup messages said that consolefont failed to start, I noticed another error line just before it "putfont: KDFONTOP: Invalid argument"
Which error I also saw if I tried to use setfont prior to the first startx command... ??

Will try again without the fbcon line. A little lator... My lady is calling for some attention right now... bye

OK so that did make a difference... In my case it was a 3 step process. {though it's possible that only one or two of them were necessary)...

(1)put a file in /etc.modprobe.d named radeon.conf containing:
options radeon modeset=1*But it's possible that once step 3 is in place, having "radeon.modeset=1" in the kernel's command line options (grub) might have worked after all

(2)add modules="radeon" to /etc/conf.d/modules* though for all I know it might have been pulled in automatically because of step 1 {or the grub equivalent) if only I'd already done step 3... (it used to work until recently with only the grub option...)

(3)When I took the line:
modules="fbcon"
OUT of my /etc/conf.d/modules file, it suddenly started working properly...That is both, setting the font with consolefont, & startx working the first time I call it...
It looks to me like the fbcon module must have been interfering somehow.

I don't know why, however, the focus no longer automatically returns to tty1 after it displays the "initializing the kernel {spash?} screen... But I can deal with having to use an <alt>+<Fkey> binding to pull up the first console login screen.